Load a roundball backwards?

[Claude Mathis]

Great question!

As long as the sprue is dead center, either top or bottom, the ball should fly true. The problem when it is loaded on the bottom is that you can't see if it is centered or not, so loading it on the top is advisable.

I don't think the ram rod has enough "reshaping" effect on the ball to make a difference.

 

[musketman]

Have you ever Loaded a round ball backwards?

Will it effect accuracy?

It can be done with "CAST" round balls, load with the sprue down...

The sprue is the flat spot on the radius of the round ball left over during the casting process, this flat spot lends itself well to the short starter during loading...

If the sprue is loaded on the round ball's side (so to speak), the center of mass will be unstable and the ball will wonder from the intended point of impact.

If it is loaded to the rear and side, the round ball will experience yaw and stray...

Loaded anywhere but up and you run the chance of defacing the leading edge of the round ball with the short starter and the ram rod, thus effecting accuracy.

It is my belief that the ram rod will "round off" the sprue's flat area during the loading process and better the ballistic coefficentcy characteristic of the round ball.

What do you think?

Flat area up?
Flat area down?
It does not make a difference?

 

[prospector]

What I like to do is cast about 100 round balls, then tumble in a big towel, roll them back and forth, for about 30 mins, no sprues.

Jim D.

 

[Randy]

30 minutes of rolling around in a towel seems like a long time. How do you stay awake? Does this give you the result of what they call "swaged" round balls? I would think having the sprue behind, pointing down when loading, would work like feathers on an arrow and make it go straight. But everyone I know loads with it pointed up, or foreward . Personally I buy the precast ones with no sprue when shooting for accuracy, but always wanted to cast my own.
Horse Dr.

 

quote:Originally posted by prospector:
What I like to do is cast about 100 round balls, then tumble in a big towel, roll them back and forth, for about 30 mins, no sprues.
If it wears down the sprue, it also wears the entire ball. They will be out of round.

If you have any doubt about this, tumble some lead balls in a rock tumbler for a day then take a look at them. You will see the exaggerated effects of what you are doing.

 

[tg]

Unless you are a serious target shooter who weighs your balls and shoots off a bench I don't think you will notice much wether the sprue is up or down or a bit off center.

 

[roundball]

"running round balls through a tumbler makes them inaccurate" ????????????

FYI:
Warren Muzzleloading in Arkansas makes their own line of "spruless" cast balls in many diameters using 100% lead, and then runs them all through tumblers to smooth and polish them up;
The Warren "spruless" balls are known for their accuracy, I've personally used a couple boxes of their .550 diameter balls, and they're every bit
as accurate as the Hornady & Speer swaged balls that I use in my other calibers, if not more so.

 

quote:Originally posted by roundball:
Warren Muzzleloading in Arkansas makes their own line of "spruless" cast balls in many diameters using 100% lead, and then runs them all through tumblers to smooth and polish them upI suspect there's a big difference in tumbling a ball to polish it and the amount of time it takes to "tumble" off the sprue. Perhaps someone could ask Warren how long they tumble their balls and if they have much of a sprue to begin with?

 

[RJR]

I cast with a Lee mold and the sprue cutter cuts flush with the ball, no sprue sticking up as with a Lyman mold. I then tumble about 200 good clean cast balls in walnut shell media for about six hours, loose less than .0005 and removes all the mold marks. I do mike about 10% after tumbling. They just aren't the pretty shiney balls that came out of the mold. Don't know how accurate they are, but they're more accurate than I am.

 

[roundball]

Carl:
The point of my post about the Warren line of "Spruless" balls was two fold:
1) That they tumble them to get rid of the sprus...to "smooth and polish";
2) They are as accurate or more so than Hornady & Speer swaged round balls that I rountinely use;

You can contact them at 1-800-874-3810

 

quote:Originally posted by roundball:
Carl:
They are as accurate or more so than Hornady & Speer swaged round balls that I rountinely use;
I meant no disrespect. I believe you and I can't argue with real life experience.

I did try to contact them, but the email on their site was returned as "unknown".

 

[roundball]

Food for thought:
I've shot a tremendous amount of different stuff in my lifetime and have had a number of eye opening personal experiences that usually refut
the typical gun writer's "the sky is falling" attitude that every little thing about the dimensions of a cartridge or case has to be mic'ed to the nth degree, or weighed out to the nth degree, culled, etc, etc.
Similarly, I don't worry too much about the consistency of round balls, weighing and culling them if they're only 1-2 grains off, worrying about sprue locations, etc.

Here's an interesting experience I just had:
I was at the range shooting tin cans at the 50 yard line and was interrupted by a fellow shooter, subsequently double loaded my rifle and my ramrod marking tape immediately told me I had.

As you know, using a ball puller leaves a huge gaping flared-mouth hole, distortion in the ball when you pull it out...I set it aside, and shot the first ball I had loaded.

Then I decided I'd just shoot this ruined Hornady ball also, so I loaded it and it center shot a coke can off the 50 yard line no differently than if it had been a brand new one.